I've been doing some long pose croquis at an Athelier (arc approved) in Stockholm and I don't understand their teaching method.
Why meticously (sp?) draw casts? Isn't it better to just learn shadowing when you do faster figurative drawings? Many quick ones seems better to me.
Maybe you practice seing in depth better when you draw casts, is that it? Anybody care to explain?

To me it seems that doing a lot quick paintings mixed with long and short croquis and then longer painting intervalls the more experienced you get would be the best way to go instead of first just draw and copy casts for half a year or so before you get to paint. And when you paint you do these loooong sessions.

I'm considering applying to Athelier Stockholm, but would like to get the big picture of their "ancient" method. Otherwise I'll just take some painting classes at the community center.

considering the fact that cast drawing has been around for so long, it has to have some effect.. but who knows?

i believe the idea is to get the eye to hand coordination really set(i.e learn to draw form), and train the eye to see all those subtle value shifts

i think the big question is you should be asking yourself, what do you want to achieve with your art?

if you want to work with art commercialy as an illustrator and such, it's probably a good idea to know value and form really well.

on the other hand, there's gesture, which to me seems more important than form and value in the modern schooling of art.. and probably best achieved by doing short sketches trying to capture motion/expression.

i think the chance of landing a job as a concept artist with only perfectly rendered still lifes in your portfolio isn't that high, how impressive it might be.. there has to be expression and gesture as well.

thanks for the reply. Yes I contacted the school and they demand really like a couple of years devotion. You won't be painting until earliest six months to a years time. I'm taking a regular night course instead, just praying the teachers will be decent there.

I read at conceptart that at the Repin academy in St Petersburg the teachers have this method of drawing on the sides of the students papers. To emphasize something particular. That place seems to me to be really great. Everybody with an interest in art education should check out the constructism vs realism thread at conceptart http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=160487 A great discussion about different art educations and methods. Focusing on realism art.

Likewise thanks for mentioning the importance of "gesture", something that's really interesting to me but that I shoved to the bottom of my list (thought I had to get all the basics first and gesture much later)... Cool.

My bet is that you should stick to meticulous cast drawing, and compensate the lack of quick sketches by always carrying a notebook and quick-sketching people everywhere. It is true that a mix of both disciplines would be better, specially if you want to live from concept art which usually benefits from being fast rather than meticulous (to a lesser degree if you want to be an illustrator), but I think it's going to be really useful nonetheless._________________www.abeloroz.blogspot.com